Daily Archives: September 15, 2011

Artist Concept of SLS on LaunchpadNASA – The Space Launch System, or SLS, will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as important cargo, equipment and science experiments to Earth’s orbit and destinations beyond. Additionally, the SLS will serve as a back up for commercial and international partner transportation services to the International Space Station.

First Space Bound Orion Comes AliveConstruction on the first space-bound Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Module began with the first weld at the Michoud Assembly Facility on Sept. 9. 2011. This capsule will be used during Orion’s first test flight in space.

After welding is completed at Michoud, the Orion spacecraft orbital test article will be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where the heat shield will be installed. At Kennedy, it will undergo final assembly and checkout operations for eventual flight.

Testing OrionTechnicians position microphones around the Orion MPCV, or Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, and LAS, or Launch Abort System, test craft in preparation for the second round of testing in the acoustic chamber at Lockheed Martin’s facilities near Denver in late August 2011. The vehicle was bombarded by acoustic levels of 150 decibels to simulate conditions during launch and abort, if necessary Image Credit: Lockheed Martin

Preparing for TestingStanding five stories tall fully stacked, the Launch Abort System was mounted atop the Orion MPCV, or Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, last week at the Lockheed Martin’s facilities near Denver. Orion is being prepared for the next round of testing in an acoustic chamber. Each test will expose the Orion MPCV and its launch abort system to acoustic levels exceeding 150 decibels while instruments record the vehicle’s response.

The test vehicles will provide critical data used to model the spacecraft’s capabilities to perform deep space exploration missions. The vehicles will undergo testing at sound pressure levels that emulate those experienced at launch and in the event an abort is needed to carry the crew to safety away from a potential problem on the launch pad or during ascent. Image Credit: Lockheed Martin

Many investors see joint debt issuance as the best way out since it would reassure markets that Europe‘s strongest economies were taking responsibility for weaker states.

But Germany, the euro zone’s main paymaster, argues that it would raise the borrowing costs of virtuous countries and remove the incentive for profligate states such as Greece or Italy to clean up their public finances. more> http://twurl.nl/8wnp7z

By John Cox – “In a Wi-Fi network, the Denial of Service attacks are usually generated by so called ‘backoff misbehavior,'” Wenye Wang, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University (NCSU), says. Based on the Wi-Fi protocols, client radios “listen” to see if the radio channel is being used. If it is, it “backs off” and waits for a set period, and then listens again. If the channel is clear, it can claim it, and send or receive data.

But an attacker can manipulate this process, changing the rules, Wang says. “[W]hen attacks change the rules of backoff time, it is similar to crashing a queue and occupying it forever,” she says. “Of course, [the] other users do not know what happened and would assume the entire network is down.”

The authors looked at two broad Wi-Fi DoS attacks: one a continuous attack, the other intermittent. The research compared how different attack strategies performed under different variables, such as varying the number of users trying to connect. more> http://twurl.nl/cuvlan

By Alexander Bolton – The debt supercommittee is unlikely to “go big” and find more than $1.5 trillion in budget cuts, according to a member of the special panel.

The lawmaker on the supercommittee said tax reform is a possibility but that it’s not likely to be as comprehensive as some lawmakers hope. The source, however, said some changes could be made to portions of the tax code affecting corporations and individuals. more> http://twurl.nl/v8tb4i